reads like an echo of the heroic age of Israel ' Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them. . . . the priests sounded with the trumpets (cf. Nu 10^ 31«, Jos 6"), then the men of Judah gave a shout (cf. Jos 6*") ; and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel.' Ijiree cities of Israel were taken : Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron. The last two are otherwise imknown, unless Ephron or Ephrain (RVm) be the same as Eiihraim (2 S 13^, Jn 11"). Bethel must soon have been re- covered by Baasha (2 Ch 16'). After this we are told that Abijah 'waxed mighty, and took unto himself fourteen wives.' Presumably most of his thirty-eight childi en were bom before he came to the throne. The Chronicler mentions as his au- thority for this reign the commentary (Midrash) of the prophet Iddo, who was also one of the biographers of Rehoboam.
2. Samuel's second son, who with his brother Joel judged at Beersheba (1 S 8-). Their corrupt administration of justice was one of the rea-sons alleged by the elders of Israel in justification of their demand for a king. The RV retains the spelling Abiah in 1 Ch 6**.
3. A son of Jeroboam L who died in childhood. His mother having "one disguised to the prophet Ahijah to inquire if ne should recover, received the heavy tidings of the future annihilation of the house of Jeroboam, and of the immediate death of her child, ' taken away from the evil to come ' : ' And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him j for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thin^ toward the Lord the God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam' (1 K 14").
i. 1 Ch 24'". One of the 'heads of fathers' houses' of the sons of Eleazar, who gave his name to the 8th of the 24 courses of priests, the arrange- ment of whom is ascribed to David (1 Ch 24', 2 Ch 8"). To this course Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, belonged (Lk P). It is probable that tins clan, and not an individual, is indicated in the lists of priests who ' went up with Zerubbabel ' (Neh 12"). LXX omits this and other names in Neh 12 (they are supplied by i* "•*•), and in the list of priests who ' sealed unto the covenant ' in the time of Nehemiah (10') ('A^fid, B, k). Of the 21 names in Neh 10, 13 occur in nearly the same order in a list of 22 in ch. 12, while three others are very similar ; and of the names in these two lists 9 are found in the names of David's courses. On the other hand, ' the book of the genealo^ of them that came up at the first' (Neh 7, tzr 2) mentions only four families of priests, nor do there seem to have been more in the time of Ezr (lO""*").
5. A son of Becher, son of Benjamin, 1 Ch "'.
6. RV retains 'Abiah,' 1 Ch 2". Wife of Hezron, eldest son of Perez, son of Judah. She was probably daughter of Machir (2=').
7. wife of Aliaz, and mother of Hezekiah (2 Ch 29'), named Abi, 2 K 18». Iler father Zechariah is possibly mentioned in Is 8'.
N. J. D. White. ABIJAM.— See Abijah.
ABILENE ('A^Ariv^), Lk 3'.— A tetrarchy about A.D. 20 in Syria (Jos. Ant. XVIU. vi. 10, XIX. v. 1, XX. vii. 1 ; IVars, II. xi. 5), the cap. being at Ablla on the N. slope of Hermon. The ruins of Abila surround a small village on the right bank of the river at Si'ik WAdy liarada, ' the market of the valley of the Abana River.' The name has given rise to a local tradition (ba.sed on the Koran) that Cain here buried Abel, whose tomb is shown at a large tank cut in the rock on the top of a clitf to the south. It is also preserved in the Latin text of Lucids Verus, on the N. side of the rock-cut
ABILITY
ABLMELECH
pii».>iase of the Koni. road W. of tlie town. The rcj.'ion of Abilene is also noticed in a Gr. text found in 187;} at Hiirkush on Hernion, showin^r that the district included the Antilebanon and Hermou, N.W. of Damascus. There is a ceme- tery at Abila of Kom. rock-cut tombs on the left of the stream, which here forms a cascade. They are adorned with bas-relief busts, and there are several tombstones with Gr. texts, giving the names of Lucius, Archelaus, Phedistus, Antonia, and Philander. N. of the river and E. of the town are foimdations of a small Kom. temple.
LiTEiLATCRK.— Keland, Paldgtina, p. 627 tt. ; Robinson, Later BR. pp. 479 484; Porter, Oiant (htitt of Bashan. p. 352 (.; Schiircr, IIJP I. ii. S35-339 ; Conder, Tent-Work in Pat. p. 127 ; Furrer, Zritschri.ft deg deutsclien Palaxtina-VerHiui, viii. 40; SWP Special Paperti Waddington, Inscrip. Gru. et Lat. de la Sl/rif. t.o. 'Abila.' C. R. CONDER.
ABILITY.— Both in OT and NT ability occurs in two senses, which must be distinguished. 1. It signihes mnlerial capacity, resources, wealth, as Ezr 2** 'They gave after their a. (Heb. 'ace. as his hand may reach') into the treasury'; Lv 27* ' According to the a. of him that vowed shall the priest value him.' Cf. LXX of Lv 25^- ■" with Ac ll'" below ; and